Is the Pain Worth it in World of Tanks? 

Everyone knows me by many names , but mostly I'm known as "I play only On Christmas"

Couple of points, I think they are generally true for the average player: 1 - Credits and exp per battle are very strongly tied to your win rate. Since QB wins A LOT more than most people do, even his free to play experience is still much, much better than the average player (you can see the average XP per battle from other people vs QB's to get an idea); 2 - Regarding stock tanks versus upgraded tanks, the sad truth is that when the tank is finally fully upgraded I'm pretty close to selling it to get the next one up. I think most people can't afford to keep the old one and get a new tank and new crew. So reviewing a fully upgraded tank is even more of a disparity than it seems when you think of the number of games played with bad modules versus with good modules; 3 - There's something very funny about an arty player called Speedy, lol

Playing Ftp isn’t pain. Playing against bz 176 and Skoda every game is pain

Playing the game now in tech tree tanks is painful, Nearly every battle the teams have so many premiums its insane. Premium tanks should be a limited number per battle.

how painful it was before 7-8 years grinding on the tech tree without, blue prints, premium and the x3 experience when winning the battle...

You don't have to play T10. If you stay between 4 and 7, it's a lot more fun.

7:20 Speaking of that, a side by side video showing the true differences between having all the best equipments and field mods and crew skills vs. with only basic credit equipments, no fieldmods a "bad crew" and no food would be interesting I think. Like how big of a difference it truly makes to mobility, reload, aimtime, riewrange, camo etc. to truly see how much of an advantage a scrublord has compared to a free to play player who just got their new tier 10 for example... before player skill is even taken into consideration.

Been playing as a free to play player for 10 years, and i must say, now being a bit better at the game, having blueprints, free premium day from battle pass, 5x xp events, xp boosters etc.. makes the game so much easier to grind, i remember back in the day grinding the WZ-120, it was terrible. Grinding is definitely much easier than it was, what i would complain about as a f2p player is more the gap that there is between people that can afford premium consumables, diferent equipment loadouts, retraining crew at 100% and people that can't, this is brutal. Good thing that Frontline is comming back soon, great to farm a bit of credit in tanks bought with bonds (f2p all the way baby)

I’m a recovering gold junkie, now a free to play player. honestly prefer the game free, having to play stock tanks and then finally getting that top gun unlocked makes it feel special, same with getting a day of premium in the free line of the battle pass, you want to make the most of it rather than take it for granted

QB, I truly appreciate you as 1 of the most popular CC for WoT, to still have a F2P account to try to stay in touch with the F2P community to feel the same pain (& excitement) and gain the different perspective to make better, more well rounded content. However, I'm wondering if you also set a time limit, like only play no more than 2-3 hrs per day on your F2P account (maybe slightly more during events/marathons)? Because even when F2P, if played long/often enough, one would still earn more resources than most regular F2P players.

Well grinding isn't much of a problem for ftp players these days...It's just a matter of accepting that everyone who uses food and fancy equipment is at least 20% better than you are, probably more if they use the latest OP premium tank while you're playing your tech tree tanks...

Playing "for free" does not necessarily mean you don't spend any free XP etc. Over the years, you could accumulate lots of ressources - back in the ranked days even gold - so for very painful grinds, you could still skip a turret or gun.

"Free experience" when you only use it by paying gold.

The bad part about the grind is the different part of a tank is normally just to hinder the player from enjoying the game and not serve any other gameplay purpose. And the way to make different vehicle parts actually serve a purpose is to assign lower match making value when using stock or subpart equipment. As most of the component (turret, gun and engines) already have tier rating.

Is it worth it? No..10 second video quackybabs ;)

I hope that there will be a PVE gamemode for only the new players or stock tank to join in the future, maybe less credit or exp. But not being the farm of the other players. Most of the time, it is the hell to play the stock tanks.

As a mostly free to play player other than the 1 prem I bought to grind credits, usually I will wait to grind t8 or t9 stock tanks until I get a free premium day when I can boost the xp after a win. I'll also use 1 or 2 xp boosters that I have saved up to make the grind less bad.

I grind through all my tanks, use free XP if I have it and try to buy tanks when they are on top of the tree, I have every tank researched but working through them, I only got into the game 3 years ago after watching you whilst in hospital with cancer, thanks for the enjoyment 👍

Playing and grinding equipment is part of the game, I dont mind it at all but true that it might be hard when all other has full equipped tanks.

Fun fact: the most relaxing stock grind has to be the Obj 430. Not only do u get the top gun, u also get the top turret. AND your stock engine only has 40 horsepower less then the top engine and the cherry on top: The top tracks give you 1 ton more capacity (altough you don't need it) and 10, yes 10 more track health :D

It would be interesting to see how many new players World of Tanks is attracting vs how many they are retaining. A lot of players I see with a low number of battles are obviously alt accounts or stat padders. Lower tier games are filled with people who have tens of thousands of battles. The sheer learning curve and amount of hours you have to commit to the game to get anywhere I'd be very, very surprised if there were a large number of F2P players playing with a full time job.

Thanks! I was so down after having a bad day in WoT.. I suck at it and trying to improve but the rng was just god damn worse... comments from random team mates didnt help either.. so this was helpful.. I am goign to try to just get through it and just try to enjoy even if I cant have games like this... maybe someday I will.. :)

one factor you are neglecting: you are an expert at this game, your skills compensate a lot for the disadvantages of free to play. now imagine being a 46% below average player, the free to play grind becomes so much more painful

I guess the most painful of all is Centurion 7/1. You need to spend 45000 XP on the same shit gun with better accuracy and DPM, but it's still a tier 8 gun, and then a ton of XP on the same turret with better view range. Only after that you can spend an extreme amount of XP on the gun which actually going to make you competitive, up until that point it's pure pain

Hello QB, I want to tell something us Literally F2P players are, because here in ASIA, we dont have much time to play/grind techtree tanks We usually wait for the Battlepass so that we can have our next Tier X tank, We spend like around 24$ on the battlepass when the minimum salary here in Asia (Philippines to be exact is 8$) And the Clan Reserves with Personal Reserves combined is still not enough for playing this game, The game literally is a P2W game that you need Premium Days to actually play the game And i would say the game is nearing on its downfall because here at asia server, we average 8-10k players unless when its weekend that we have 10-12k players.

as a free to play player, only thing i feel about world of tanks is hate, fuck this trash game hope it does soon so we can move on to our next addiction

Yeah, it's getting expensive to play ... Thinking of going back to World of Warcraft as it was always $15 per month, instead of the crazy prices of World of Tanks can have you paying more than that per month!

This f2p pain is the main problem for me since I’ve been back to wot. I like some of the missions and campaign modes that have been added and especially tank academy but I’m beginning to play this game less because of the skill gap with what seems to be many top tier experienced players seal clubbing down at five and six where I live. We are distinct different categories of player and when you add the hardware deficit f2p it does seem hopeless at times to be able to compete. I’d like to see a 4v4 or 8v8 normalized mode where all tanks are top tier on a set map and teams play to capture an area. This game mode along with the normal random queue would make life in wot easier to beat.

Watching this tank turn like a battleship brought back some horror memories from when I grinded this line. The tier 10 with both tier 3 experimental turbo and accuracy + bond gun rammer became playable, but damn it still feels incredibly slow.

F2p ever since i started the game in 2013-14. the worst things that have ruined the game are : - gold rounds for credits (now 75% of all rounds i receive are gold completely nagating a tanks armour) - wheeled vehicules - art - blatant bots only firing HE or 0dmg/0shots fired - WG randomly slashing/nerfing tanks at random - the incessant power creep

I've played this game as different levels of spending at times. I would say that if you've spent money in this game previously or have completed marathons and if you genuinely enjoy challenge and the gameplay (not just achieving your next grind), free to play is very enjoyable. But basically you just do need to play premium tanks more if you play for free. I know two separate people who have played this game for a lot longer than I have and they tend to just play their favorite tier5-7 tanks all over again. To them it's about just shooting tanks and relaxing, and I think that's a completely valid way to play this game.

Been playing since 2011. Haven't paid WG a single penny since 2020. Found myself enjoying it more than I used to.

First- Thank u QB for saying that you’re Sorry for your tanks reviews - this is respectful Second - thank you for mentioning that not to spend money just to make ur stats better cuz actually this is the trap we’re falling into

I think the biggest problem with the f2p formula is that a lot of content is more difficult to access, and even if you can reach it yourself, the game doesn't give you the same experience in return as when you pay out of your own pocket. This difference can be seen in such simple things as slow development, lack of credits, and a lot of fighting against a player who is at the same level as you, or even more experienced and uses a better version of your vehicle that someone paid money for. I also started as a f2p player, but when I saw that there was no point in having fun with it, I switched, and the fact is that even after that the game can still be a joke, but it goes much better and is less painful. In the past (about 9-10 years ago) the Kv-2 was my most used tank, and not much more was developed because there was no money for it. T-150 and Kv-3 were the other two, and the latter was also my top tank on my old user account. Since I switched, I have several Tier X tanks and my stats have improved a lot. That's what it means, if that doesn't say anything. Then I don't know how to put it better. 😂

Personally, I pay the credits to get my crew at 75% and simply play. Some tanks are worse than others stock, but I actually like playing with a disadvantage because it forces me to rethink how I play and to adapt which a very useful thing to learn in this game.

Its hard to play F2P when majority of players spamming gold rounds. So to be competitive you need to respond.

Wargaming doesn't make money from f2p so they've incrementally modified the game to make f2p more frustrating to play and win. This basically pressures f2p players to either spend money to compete or deal with the disadvantages like lower pen, weaker armor, higher cost ammo, grossly lopsided teams, etc. It's a cash grab tactic that WG is making harder and harder to avoid.

As FTP I play, I only play vehicles that are top of the tree, or capable of completing a daily mission easily. If the mission is lots of hits or crits, you really can't beat the tier 4 matilda. I will save free xp until I can kit out the next one, and very rarely play stock tanks.

now, i am not saying, that one should spend money to upgrade tanks, but 95% of the players do not buy gold at that price:) You know very well where the gold comes from.

hello QB , as a f2p player , coz i live in north africa , we dont even have credit carts so we have to F2p and i have never spent moneyon the game , i have 10k battles with 48.5% win rate , i have only 4 tier X tanks , and i can tell you its awful experience ,even when i grind the xp , i dont have enough credits to buy the tanks and then retrain the crew so i have to grind stock tanks with 80 or 90% crew , its incredibly infuriating experience to say the least , thank you for the content QB , Ps : i play in EU , and on and off coz like i said its tough some times .

Short answer: no Long answer: no.

"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive." (Robert Louis Stevenson) I am a true ftp and I like to grind lines slowly, with some freexp to bypass too painful steps.

Also factor that with the blueprint system, people are playing tech tree tanks less and less, meaning less free XP gained to spend to unlock modules on the next tank.

Should be cursed the day where "pay for convenience" was invented (and "normal" gameplay was made horrible).

I hardly ever use FXP for modules, only for those with the very worst stock guns since I noticed how expensive it was from the start.

I have been playing WoT since around 2018. Only on XBox. I'm not sure my playtime but I've taken year or more long breaks from WoT. Years ago I think I spent $30 on gold while I was unemployed and bought only premium with it. I have 6 tier 10 non premium tanks, all grinded. Almost 7. Along with a handful of tier 8s. In my opinion the only thing worth spending gold on is premium, as you can grind much much faster. Just try and make sure you have more playtime than you normally would. Once you pick a tank line, just stick with it. Grind it, don't give up. Years ago I set a goal to have a tier10 of each tank class. I grinded. Have a bad game? Who cares, drop out and start up another one with a different tank and class. That's what I love about WoT, you can play casually and quickly in and out of games. Of course when using boosters, try to put in a little more effort to have those good games. I have a 100E5, AMX 105, BC 155 58, JgPZe100, Skoda TVP, and an obj 277. About 100k exp away from a Grille. I've always been a grinder in any video game I play. I take pride in not buying content that I can grind. I'm cheap. I also never pay much attention to my free exp. I'll accumulate abunch, then just randomly spend it on upgrading a lower tier awful tank or skipping a stage on a higher tier tank. I never buy gold and always seem to have a balance of around 800-1500 from rewards and stuff. Play for fun. Save your money for other shit, unless you just have money to blow.

I have over 200 tanks. The grind in some of the suckish tanks isn't worth it. The worse is g7rinding a line that ends up being creeped into irrelevance

Good information. Thanks.

Free to play spends no gold. You have to grind the experience. That's a lot of battles of frustrated angst while crippled esp mid to higher tiers.

as A Free to play player I acculumated 50k bonds 160k free xp Got a couple of MT and HT lines I still hate the maps and rng WIll probably stop playing once the Free Prem Days are gone up until christmas again

Uninstall is becoming more appealing. Free to play requires horrendous credits to advance equipment. Attempting to advance with nerfed lower tier tanks is near impossible just by developing skill when you have a slow - non penning TD4 British gun that takes 5000 points for one shot. W.O.T. is pricing themselves above what people want to spend, while getting a higher level tank with LESS power for battle. Shots that don't pen. or hits/kills not scored make it impossible to advance.

I'm f2p since beginnings in 2012. And in the old days yeah, the difference was drastic in regards to credits. You had to play lower tiers to earn to cover your higher tier games. But since few years ago it totally changed. Now I really dont see any sense in buying premium. I can afford any tank I research. I got enough to buy equipment for any tank in my garage. I dont feel pain when I have to click the 2 key and shoot some gold. Sure, I could always use some mote credits, but all it would give me is that I could play extremely lavishly and don't think about it. The 3x exp boost is the only thing I really care about when I get some free premium days.

QB, f2p is the only way! If it is not possible or fun it means the game is p2w only, and that quickly finishes the game. One can cut a corner or two paying a buck for something but f2p must be the main way to play the game.

The problem of playing tier 6-7 is you are constantly facing BZ-176s, Bourrasques and stuff. You reach tier 8 and the pain continues and it doesn't end even if you reach tier 9 or 10, where you meet 330-340 spammers and so on. I have roughly 180k free exp that I'm very carefully saving for future tanks to make the stock grind the less painful possible and I ALWAYS watch tech tree showcases to see if it's worth the investment or not. It was worthy for the Ho-ri line but thankfully I didn't use it in the trash Concept 5 or the new japanese heavies.

thanks for reminding me about my stock t32 sitting in my garage god its so painful using it

In my experience, playing F2P means: stock tank, 75% crew, no equipment and no gold.

How stupid or naive is QB to suggest there are only people who do full-stock grinds, and people who convert free xp using gold for those upgrades, and no one in between? And then he dares to insinuate *those* people are stupid

I wish blueprints were for modules rather than for tanks. After some years playing WOT, I need to grind almost every tank stock - but when the tank is finally fully upgraded, the next tank is already researched, so I don't need to play the previous anymore. I would really prefer grinding for tanks instead grinding for modules.

I've done a lot of F2P since I started WoT, I save up the free experience I earn each battle and put that combined total towards buying new modules, if it's below a certain threshold, I don't use free xp at all, and i tend to keep some tanks I'm particularly good in for grinding out free xp and just to take a step back into something better and just have fun in.

I only get gold on occasion. Used to get it by itself, but nowadays it just comes with the Battle Pass I get. Yes, it is incredibly expensive when you are converting it to free xp for modules. I used to do that for a couple years when I was in college and had some extra money from my snow shoveling job. However, when I looked at how much gold I was using, I got fed up with it and stopped. It was around that time that WG implemented the fragment mechanics, which made life a lot easier. One of the best things they ever did, because it saved me time, money, and potential aggravation. These days, the only time I use gold for free xp is when they have assembly shops. Besides that, I just save it for a rainy day.

Gold on the NA server in US dollars is significantly more expensive than you estimated. I realize it was just an estimate. I just checked the price of 2,000 gold using "any amount of gold" and it came to $10.34, which is 193 gold per dollar. The unit price of gold on the NA server decreases as you buy larger quantities, $100.12 will get you 25,000 gold, or basically 250 gold per dollar.

Used to play a lot of WoT on console, before I transitioned to PC gaming several years ago. Back then I used more money on premium and gold to convert free xp. But now I rarely play the game and using gold on free xp is expensive, so I put up with the stock grinds, unless they are absolute torture. Got some premium time with the christmas crates, but since those ran out I haven't touched the game. Will also mention that I've played the game for probably 6+ years, but I don't have a single tier 10. In World of Warships tho, it's a different situation, as the XP grind is lesser due to several different bonuses from camos and signal flags.

Thanks! good sport! for 5 days ago bless your heart on that match with the other streamer

Having fun is just the friends we made along the way

Tbh not playing a tank with a actual stock gun or one of 2-3 bad guns is dishonest. Some tanks are literally unplayable with their stock guns.

I was F2P starting out.. it was an horrible experience. I spent a little money to get some prem tanks and that helped me over the hump.

I never spent any money on the game and I’ve been playing almost 9 years now, but I also mostly play low tiers (6 and below), so I do have a good amount of free XP saved up in case I’m grinding a tech tree and there’s something like a 25TP I have free XP saved up. I can’t afford the fancy new stuff that needs free XP, so might as well use it since some stock tanks are so crippled the free XP is worth it

Looking at the BZ there makes me a little envious that my E75 didn't come with that top gun from stock

@quickybaby you need to seriously re-evaluate the value of tracks on stock tanks. its not simply carry weight. its generally a large amount of mobility, in many cases top speed, and better aim times. You also get tracked less due to increased module hitpoints. they are far more important than you make out.

I've been F2P since I started playing 3 or 4 years ago. I don't find it much of a pain but I also don't try to collect tanks. Ever since the start I picked the tanks I liked, upgraded them, and then played the heck out of them. Now I have enough free XP saved up that whenever I get a new tank I can free XP the way up the tree and then free xp the upgrades. Granted, i couldn't do this if I wanted to "collect all the tanks" or played mainly tier 9 or 10. I prefer 4 to 7.

I like my WoT tech trees like I like my coffee beans, ground. 95% of the time I just grind the tech trees. Its also a lot more fun if you have a friend or two to play with, helps the grind suck less.

I play for free most of the time. Last year I bought the bb in the summer as I was on holidays. I actually like to grind stock tanks, only thing that bothers me is the xp change in tot tanks. That 5x xp at second victory per day was awesome. Now you have to grind 5 games to get the same xp.

love your hontesty thankyou

I've played a lot of the lines totally FTP, some are pure pain. I will say that the tournaments and whatnot can be a pretty big boost if you've got a tank that's a nightmare to try and play stock. I don't play a lot of T10, because it's not as much fun as tier 6-9. I tend to play tanks stock-ish if it's cheap to just get the gun, or play for the 1 win per day spamming gold ammo until I have the XP needed. Credits aren't hard to make with a premium tank, and some are obtainable for free via bonds or through missions.

most pain i ever had was upgrading the panther to panther 2. You need the tracks first to use all 3 equipment. After that you finally can upgrade the gun from 135 dmg and 198 pen to 240 and 203 pen🤣

Stock IS-3 and Centurion 7/1 are a pain. Still trying those out

I'm free 2 play lol I have to grind things completely stock even low tiers 😢 so thanks for caring and playing free 2 play aswell so u have an idea what we have to do lol not hardly any others would care enough to torture themselves like you do heh And let me tell you how much your twitch drops are so greatly appreciated it makes a substantial difference allowing us to even have a low tier premium tank cause without credits we can't do anything... we can always make XP but we lose credits more often than not so premium tanks and ways to make credits is mandatory life blood for a f2p player like me so thank you thank you so so much for that, aswell as helping give us tips and tricks you've learned while playing for free anything helps ALOT

It wasnt sucks to be a f2p player when premium tanks were equal to the stock tanks.

About the same price is asked for a premium tank, adding up about 8 dollar per part of the tank, with a bonus of a crew...

I grind stock tanks, but with credit boosters it doesn't seem to take that long to get all the modules. It's the 75% crews and the time it takes to get that 1st skill that's painful.

Good points, thank you!

I don't mind the occasional tough stock tank grind. It makes those good games and the fully upgraded experience all the sweeter. I'm not fully F2P - I do sometimes get some gold to minimise the loss of XP when retraining crews - though I do that much less these days. Converting leftover tank XP into free XP is a very poor UI experience as well. Especially since the introduction of field mods.

I think it is so not worth it save all your free xp for the Workshop. It is just one single tank you get. It makes so much more sense to spend free XP on modules, so that you can skip the stock grind or even skip a tank altogether in combination with blueprints. I am (mostly) f2p and if I want to get a tier X without having to grind up the techtree, I just use my free XP. So much more rewarding IMO. Plus, I also use free XP to boost my crew when the conversion rate of free xp to crew xp is boosted. Don't waste your precious free XP on a single workshop tank, it's just so not worth it.

Watching you play new tanks and be absolutely hyped about their performance and then being disappointed that mine don't play like that at all is probably the reason why I stopped doing f2p and always having at least Premium active. F2P definitely isn't a valid way to play WoT as you sacrifice so much time and frustrating moments that could be happy moments. An example is right now I spent my free xp out of stupidity on crew XP and couldn't afford to get the new gun on my Udes 14 5 and now I have to basically act like a light tank and assist more than damage the enemy lines as even clear shots with that 179 pen aren't bringing me anywhere. So I either shoot gold or wait for cheeky plays.

I love your tank reviews and when I do get the vehicle I get it try it and do my best if I don't like it I sell it

I feel the luck part. Lost a game because my 430U min rolls for 330 on a 334 HP tank, 440 alpha on that gun. But an hour later I win in the same situation because my shell max rolls for 550. Bonkers

I definitely grind the stock tanks, but to be fair, not every stock tank is created equal. For examply I am playing the 50 TP right now stock and it is a banger (sure, I need to load more gold than AP, but still). In the mean time the Tier 9 Italian heavy is a real struggle stock. Barely feels tier 7, let alone 9

How he cuts out the start of the battle where the IS-7 pushed him sideways xD

F2P is fun until tier 8. thats how i spent 800 euros since August. Gotta go premium after tier 7

Every pain is not wanted. Games today it gives the vibe, that are only for streamers nowadays. You pay, get something better, and you have advantage.

Thanks qb for the video ❤

It depends on what you are looking for in the game - and how much in a hurry you are to get to T10. My wife has been FTP since the beginning and is only playing T6 and below because that is what she enjoys. She has never purchased a tech tree T7 tank. She has a bunch of free T9 rewards vehicles that she never uses. She has all tech tree tanks researched because of the blue prints. She has 252M credits, 97K bonds and 2.8M Free XP available. So resources for her is not an issue - and never will be. I paid for one year of Premium time when I began playing and have been FTP since then. The blue prints were introduced one year after I started playing and I just let them take care of researching tanks for me saving me a tons of grinding. Then I bought modules for FreeXPs for the lines I wanted when I had them available. It was not fast but it was not a pain either. I now have a bunch of T10s and have never been short of resources. I just spent 20M credits on a T22 just because I could. The way I see it, you play a game because you enjoy it. If you enjoy a game, then there is no need to rush the tech tree. If you are not enjoying the game at the lower tiers, you probably will not enjoy it at higher tiers either so maybe looking for another game would be more rewarding.

You tricked us, baby, hope it was worth it! :) I remember how i was suffering grinding at Tiger 1, my tears will be avenged.

I think alot new player give up the game because the grind.

Now that's a good video ❤

I don't play WoT that much. But I'm an f2p player ( at least on the PC version on WoT ).

A Game is about playing and not about paying...

I do spend money on the game occasionally but I still play through the stock tanks 99% of the time despite having 200k free xp in the bank, because most of them are tolerable. I can’t remember the last time I spent gold on free xp if I even did

Most of the time I grind through stock tanks but sometimes if I get really frustrated I might spend £10 on some free XP. I hate having to do it but some stock tanks are no fun at all without at least the gun.

Playing for free isn't worth the pain anymore when you have matchmaking full of prenium tank with 100% crew with 3 skill each ... here why the main reason being that you don't have fun in thise mach , add on top of that the how often it happen .